Four supermarkets in the UK including Morrisons have taken products off their shelves in the wake of the egg contamination scare – as the UK Food Standards Agency said yesterday the scale of the problem is higher than previously thought.
Around 700,000 eggs from Dutch farms implicated in the Fipronil contamination scare have been distributed to Britain, rather than the 21,000 first estimated, the watchdog said.
In response, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Asda in the UK had withdrawn a total of 11 products – including sandwiches, sandwich fillers and salads – from sale.
A Morrisons spokeswoman yesterday confirmed 100% of their whole eggs were British and none of these eggs had been affected but that at least three of their products containing egg (sandwiches) had been pulled from UK stores.
“We are working closely with the FSA on their Fipronil investigation and we have taken precautionary and prompt action to withdraw the three products that may be affected,” she said.
The FSA meanwhile said investigations into the incident suggested it was “very unlikely” that the eggs posed a risk to public health as it released a list of processed products withdrawn in the UK “to ensure that consumers are protected”.
The move came as Dutch investigators detained two men suspected of being involved in the illegal use of the pesticide at poultry farms.
Potentially contaminated eggs have cropped up in Luxembourg, Denmark and Romania, with the Veterinary Health Authority in Bucharest saying it discovered 1,000 kilograms of eggs before they reached supermarket shelves.

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